Well, having reviewed several studies of mine from the last several years, I find there is much that must be said of John, and much that I have already said. There is, however, a theme that runs through all of it: John’s message was simple and delivered simply. He did not lean on rhetorical flourishes, nor did he lean on things that would impress the senses. Certainly, he involved the senses. Baptism is, after all, a most sensate experience. But, the baptism was almost an afterthought. Unless the real repentance that was the core of his teaching was already established, the baptism which confirmed it was refused.

So, let me begin by looking at the message of John. At its core, his message was one of repentance. However, he would insist on a very real, radically effective repentance. By and large, the society of Israel had fallen into an empty, ritualistic system of belief. They would repent in form on the Sabbath, but be right back to their sins as soon as it was over. There was always next week’s cleansings to see to that. Or, if it were a really big-ticket sin, one might wait for the annual day of repentance. But, there was no change. It was simply pay to play. John’s preaching left no such option to those who would hear him.

He called his listeners to a sense of the immediacy of their need. They had grown used to the prophetic vision of the day of the Lord as concerned its timing. That was a day still far off in the future and nothing they need concern themselves with. Besides, that day, when it came, was going to be the day Israel was delivered from her oppressors, so what was there to fear in it? Well, John would explain it to them. That day is about far more than deliverance. It is not a wrath reserved for our enemies alone, but it is a day for judgment on the whole world, Israel included. We have had our days of atoning and we have wasted them. The Judge before Whom we would atone for ourselves must eventually have justice and that day is coming. Indeed, John’s message moved beyond ‘that day is coming,’ for that left the conscience free to postpone its decision. No, his message began with telling his hearers that the King was en route and the time remaining to prepare for His arrival brief in the extreme. Before long, though, he had moved to, ‘the King is here.’ He still left a few brief moments for his hearers to prepare, but the urgency was on the increase.

With that urgency, he cried out to those listening that a deep and heart-changing repentance was in order. He echoed the prophets in whose footsteps he travailed. “Make straight the path of the Lord!” He had come out of the wilderness to minister, and that wilderness was an imagery most fitting to his message. It was full of a symbolism easily accessible to those listening. That wilderness had long been associated with God, a meeting place where His chosen ones went to hear from Him directly. Those who had heard often came back with messages associating that same wilderness with the condition of God’s people.

They were become a desert place right there in the land of milk and honey. Their spiritual condition was devoid of life. They had allowed their sins to build up in mountainous piles, and they had allowed the degradations of sin to dig deep trenches in their sense of right and wrong. They had blasted their own spiritual landscape until it was all but incapable of sustaining any light of righteousness. Thus, the call to make the way straight. Those mountains must be pulled down and those trenches filled in. The external rituals in which God’s people had been taught to trust were not going to prove sufficient for such a task. Besides, with the King already walking His lands, there was no time to wait for the next ritual observation. It needed doing now, and it needed doing in a way that had real impact. A people that would receive this King dare not trust in show. He would see through every artifice to the real condition of those before Him. If His people would stand His judgment, they must truly have judged themselves before coming into His presence.

Now, in writing all this, I cannot help but see the same thing happening today. After two thousand years of preparing for Christ’s return, many of us have returned to thinking that it’s likely to be at least another thousand or two before He comes. We are no longer preparing for a visit like unto a ‘thief in the night.’ We may say all the right things, nod our heads when we are warned to be ready for Him, but we really don’t live in that sense of preparedness. Life has continued too long in its typical fashion, and it is hard for us to see it doing anything else.

Having lost that sense of immediacy, we have also followed our predecessors in leaning too much on the externals while ignoring our internal state. Or, if not ignoring it, we have become terribly adept at excusing it. We do this in spite of the warnings given to us in the Scriptures. Jesus told us that this would happen. Oh, to be sure, we would deny holding such a viewpoint. No, no. We know Jesus is coming soon. But, if this was truly our thinking, if this were truly our heart, how different would our actions be!

If we know He is returning soon, why are we still more concerned with pursuing our interests than His? If we know He is returning soon, why does our lifestyle still reflect His way so little? If we know He is returning soon, why aren’t we preparing for Him?

Lord, I know this poisonous mindset is in me. I know it, for there are yet those things which You have called to my attention over the years that I simply put off dealing with. I know it because of the anger that I still see explode from me. I know it because of the habits that yet cling to me. I have not taken You as seriously as You deserve. Oh, I have these times with You in the morning, but how swiftly forgot? God! This ought not to be. Yet, how can I cry out for Your forgiveness when I know too well that I shall simply walk out of this house and do as I have done?

Jesus, something needs to change in me. Were I in a place to demand anything of You, I would that You would make that change. I would that You would either bring me into obedience or let me go, for this agony of half measures is anguish to my soul. Oh, but let it not be that ever You should let me go. No! Nor that I should let go of You. Oh, my sweet Lord, though I stumble often, yet will I get back up and continue. No, I shall make no demand upon You, for how shall I demand a thing of my Sovereign? It is You who are my Lord, and it is You who are in the place to command and demand.

Yes, and it pains me, for I know how often I have neglected that command. Oh, how can I not cry out for forgiveness? Lord, what else is there? Shall I list for You my accomplishments? They are nothing. They are worthless. If there is anything at all that I have done it is only as You have done it in me, and this I know right well. How embarrassing, to hear what people claim of me. How embarrassing to have my faith in You honored when I know it is such a mean thing.

I can only take it as proof that You have been true to Your word. You have not forsaken me. You have not left me. And, though I know such turmoil of heart, yet You have indeed been working within me to see Your will accomplished. How? I do not know. Why? I cannot comprehend. Yet, how can I deny that You have made me far more than what I should have been without You? How can I deny that the commitment to decency and to doing right by those around me is strictly Your work? No, I know my selfishness too well to take credit for that. I know the whispers of the deceitful heart within me that run so counter to those actions. So, as I ask forgiveness for making so much work for You, I cannot help but also cry out my thanks that You have taken on that work!

Oh, how well I understand Paul’s agony of soul. How well I can commiserate with his cry of ‘woe is me! Who shall save?’ Yes, and with him, I know I can also proclaim of You, my God, that nothing shall separate me from Your love. Oh, if Your love has not given up on me yet, then I surely cannot fail to see that Your love for me is not going to give up. Thank You, Father, most faithful, loving Father! Thank You, Holy Spirit, as well, for turning my eyes on the failure and the success of faith. Thank You, Jesus, that You have called me Your friend in spite of my faults. That You have called me brother is too wonderful for words. What could I say that would satisfy? What could I offer that would even begin to repay?

Holy One, my Triune God, I can offer You nothing but myself, such as I am, and I will simply echo the cry of those saints who precede me: Be Thou my Provision, my Protection, my Sword, my Shield and my Strong Tower, and it shall be well with my soul.

John, we might suppose, was something near to thirty years old when he began his ministry. We can likewise suppose that he was something near to thirty years old when it closed. Such a brief moment of service he was prepared for. All of that training, even before he was conceived in his mother’s womb he was being prepared for his moment. Yet, that moment was a period of perhaps six months. Many a man would be crushed by the apparent failure. After all, he had spent thirty years out there in the desert, thirty years of self-denial, preparing, seeking out the Lord. For thirty years, he had devoted himself to knowing the God of Israel, to hearing his direction from God alone, and steeling himself as best he might to fulfill what the Almighty One had called him to do.

Thirty years. Now, he has arrived. That’s something more akin to what our expectation would be, when it comes to his reaction. Think of one who has set his mind on becoming a doctor. He has been diligent to keep his grades up throughout his youth. He has all but bankrupted himself paying for his post-secondary education. Indeed, not only has this come near to bankrupting his finances, it has done nearly as much for his life. He has had to set aside much of the common joy of youth. Companionship, by and large, has been forsaken in pursuit of his goal. For, there are long hours of study and even longer hours of internship that must be worked through if he is going to achieve his desired end. Yes, there’s something near to thirty years in that process. Can you imagine such a one, having finally achieved his goal, setting up office for six months and then being forced to resign? Why, we would count that man a total failure and he would doubtless count himself an utter fool.

Yet, John has paid a much greater price to enter into his chosen profession. Even so, when he sees the sign and knows that his period of ministry must close, does he gripe that the One Who comes has come too soon? Not at all! In point of fact, he proclaims his joy made complete in seeing the Son arrived and the Father’s sign fulfilled upon Him. “Here He Is!” He shouts. He begins steering those who have been his disciples towards this One Who is the point of his own ministry. “I must decrease.” There is no grumbling in that, only the joy of knowing his was a job well done. “My work here is done.” He can and does continue to serve his kingdom and his King for what time he remains, but he has fulfilled all that his training had prepared him for and all that his Trainer had prepared for him.

John was clearly unconcerned with building a name for himself, or some manner of religious dynasty. He wasn’t here to set up a new sect or denomination. He was here simply to point to and confirm Messiah. That was the task he was assigned in the epic of redemptive history and he was well satisfied to fulfill his own task. Even in the baptisms that he performed, he was doing no more than preparing for and pointing to that baptism which would come about from the Holy Spirit later. (Ac 1:5 – John baptized with water but shortly you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.)

OK, I need to move slightly off topic here. John’s baptism was clearly symbolic, and he did his best to ensure that what the act symbolized had already become an established reality within the one who was to be baptized. What was that point of baptism by water? It was a confession of our filth. We, as sinners, are a filthy lot and must be washed and cleaned if we are to be made presentable to the King. Again, though, I want to emphasize that the act of baptism was but a confirmation of the pre-existing reality of repentance. If the heart was not convicted to the point of setting aside its former ways, then the motions of stepping in and out of the river would have no more power than swimming.

Now, then, with that as the precursor or foreshadowing of the Holy Spirit baptism, should we not understand that latter baptism in a similar fashion? That there is something special in this latter baptism is clear enough in what Jesus says about it after having made that statement. I would also note that there are bounds set upon that something. The disciples, ever curious about this kingdom whose King they served, and still loyal Israelites, were asking if this was the time when Jesus would restore the kingdom to Israel. Never mind the misunderstanding that is expressed in that question, for Jesus doesn’t. He simply sets up a boundary: “It is not for you to know times or epochs. The Father has them fixed, settled upon His own authority, but this is not your concern or your privilege to know” (Ac 1:6-7). So, first the boundary, but then the news: “You will, however, receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witness to the world” (Ac 1:8).

So much to look at there, but let me start with this: Their eyes were still on the wrong kingdom. For all their training and preparation, they still couldn’t think beyond their own little parochial state. Jesus clarifies, for they have fallen into the same old trap of the chosen people, thinking it’s all about this special place called Israel. Jesus says no, it’s about the world. It’s about all mankind. You were not chosen to be culled out as the sole harvest. You were chosen to bear word of Me to one and all. You were chosen to be cast as seed upon the whole face of the earth that from every tribe and every tongue, there might be a people raised up for the real kingdom you serve.

Well, now I’ve strayed two steps from my topic. Let me return one step. If, then, the baptism which John performed was to be but a visible confirmation of a repentance already accomplished, should we not view the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a similar light? Consider, if nothing else, that these who were to be baptized according to Jesus’ words had already received that same Holy Spirit upon His own word (Jn 20:22). They already had that authority. They were already in position to forgive sins on heaven’s account. When I consider that in many branches of Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity today the gifts of the Spirit are taken to be proof of the baptism; isn’t this backwards? Baptism is the seal, the confirmation, of what has already transpired!

Even to the proselyte whom the Jews were wont to baptize, was not that washing a symbolic acknowledgement on the part of the proselyte? Had he not already been washed in spirit that he might even consider turning to a holy God? Of course! So, with John, the baptism was but a public admission to the guilt God had already dealt with and forgiven. It was, in its way, a public covenant, that those things, having once been repudiated, would not again be picked up. Well, then, when we come to the Spirit baptism, I should think it, too, must be recognized as something of a confession of what has already transpired. The power has already been given, the authority of the Gospel instilled. The gifts and fruits of the Spirit have already been implanted. It remains but for them to grow. The baptism is but an outwardly manifest confirmation of the inward work.

I would take it a step farther and say that the power does not lie in the signs and wonders. We make much of those signs and wonders, how they were promised as following God’s workers. Yet, in doing so, we tend to neglect all the warnings that those who labor for our soul’s enemy will likewise be seen to perform signs and wonders, even as Pharaoh’s magicians did to refute Moses. We also neglect to ask why those signs and wonders were to follow, and I think the answer to that lies in the baptism. They were to confirm, to put the stamp upon the message that would mark it as valid and authoritative.

Why am I laboring this point? We have a tendency to think our church weak and powerless because we don’t see these signs and wonders in our day. We hear of what is happening in other places, in Africa, in Latin America and so on, and we wonder, why not here? The answer we come up with most often is that it is our skepticism that prevents God from working in our region, or that there is such a spirit of unbelief over this area that God is stifled. What utter nonsense! What a small God we serve if a bad attitude on our part can stop Him from doing all His will! No, I think the answer has far less to do with the towering power of our unbelief and far more to do with God’s towering willingness to tune His message to our capacity.

Signs and wonders mean little to modern man. He is no longer capable of being overawed by the inexplicable, for science has explained so much of the inexplicable already. At least here in Western society, there is something of an innate sense that we can and will eventually explain every mystery and riddle of the world around us, even the anomalies. So, the miraculous fails to impress us. Indeed, our first reaction, as properly skeptical demanders of proof, will be to disprove the event. We will either write it off to naturally explicable phenomena, or assume that whatever has been fixed had been mistakenly thought to be broken in the first place. Well, if these signs and wonders do not serve to validate the message, why should we expect God to bother with them?

It strikes me that we can expect to find the message confirmed to our senses in other ways, in ways that coincide more effectively with our way of thinking. As often as I’ve touched on it before, I look again at the circumstance of my own conversion experience, if you will. Was there an intervention of God happening on that occasion? Absolutely! Was it of a nature that I would have been likely to notice if He had not first hinted at what to look for? No. He simply came with a simple proposition, perfectly suited for one who thought in terms of logic and proofs.

Now, if you ask me how it was that I, with this expressed sense of logic and reason, was willing to accept these thoughts as not my own, or even accept them as something more than imagination, I can’t answer. I don’t know. What I do know is that there was a simple proposition made: Accept two theorems. Theorem number 1: God Is. Theorem number 2: There are no coincidences. With these two theorems, let the coming weekend proceed. Look, this was asking no more faith from me than Algebra did. Algebra requires the acceptance of a few ground rules that can never be thoroughly proved out. One sees enough of a system built upon those few ground rules, though, that the validity of the first few rules is borne out by all that follows.

So it was with that weekend. If there were no such thing as coincidences, then how was it that so many coincidentally timed events kept transpiring? Look, nobody else was privy to that conversation. It had, after all, been ‘all in my head’. There could be no conspiracy of man to arrange these things, for the bulk of them involved my own private thoughts. There would be somebody I felt a need to speak to, and lo! There they were crossing my path in that moment. There would be somebody I was in the company of at a particular moment with whom I needed to part company for a time, but without rancor and lo! They would suddenly have an urge to be about something else. This may not seem like much, but it was building on that second theorem. There were simply too many coincidences to accept them all as merely coincidental. And, if that be the case, then who was organizing things? Well, now I was back at theorem number 1: God Is.

These were the signs and wonders that confirmed the message to me. It did not require limbs grown back or bodies raised from death. Those were signs and wonders that held in them the power to convince a particular people at a particular time. There are cultures which can still accept this sort of sign in our day and isn’t it interesting that it is in such cultures that we hear of the signs performed? For our own culture, I firmly believe the confirmation of the message has been couched in more culturally comprehensible and acceptable markers. It’s not about how powerful we are to limit what God can do. It’s about how willing God is to stoop down to our level that He might lift us up to Him!

By and large, I think that the focus on healing and on miracle is a distraction. It does little to bring about the restoration of faith or the redemption of our culture. Let us accept as a premise that these large, media-savvy, miracle ministries are for real. Who are they reaching? For the most part, they are reaching the reached. They are tapping into a marketplace of believers who already believe. If this be the case, what kingdom purpose do they serve? Are they adding to the church’s number daily? Not noticeably. Are they convicting hearts and convincing minds amongst an unbelieving public? Not noticeably. More than anything, harsh as it may sound, they seem to be entertaining and distracting the people of God’s kingdom rather than keeping our focus on that kingdom.

John would not have tolerated any such distraction in his own ministry. No, he was consistent in turning even his closest disciples toward Jesus. “I must decrease. It’s not about me. It’s about Jesus, God’s Anointed and Approved. Hear Him. Follow Him.” John knew he could not save a single soul. He could only put that soul on the path to salvation. Indeed, John never once performed a miracle that we are made aware of, and yet he is spoken of as ministering in the power of Elijah! Shouldn’t that tell us something? Of course it should! The power is not in whizzy magic tricks. The power is in the unvarnished, unassailable Truth of the message.

Look, here is a fundamental truth: Again, consider those media ministries. Do you know something? In large part it doesn’t matter whether they’re real or not. Assume they are for a moment. It won’t matter to anybody until that anybody has the matter made manifest to them by God’s own revelation. OK, my more conservative brethren will take offense at the idea of revelation here. Perhaps illumination is the more theologically appropriate term, but it will come to that anybody as a revelation. Unless God had opted to reveal to me that all those coming coincidences had a greater meaning, I would have found no significance in those events. I would be as lost now as I was before. Without that implanted insight, the most real of miracles will strike our senses as nothing more than entertainment. The confirmation is of little worth if we do not accept the authority of the confirming agency. Baptism apart from a preceding reality of repentance and faith is but a dip in the pool. Signs and wonders, apart from the Truth of the Gospel are but bright lights and mirrors, distracting us from the simple reality of heaven.

So John pointed his disciples to the One he served, the One whose forerunner he had been ordained to be by God. “Behold the Lamb of God.” Even as he languishes in Herod’s prison, he continues to do this. We can be clear on the fact that John had no reason to think he would be leaving that prison alive. Neither had he any great concern about it. He was imprisoned for declaring God’s truth, and though God slay him, yet he would trust the Lord. His eyes weren’t on this life. They were on the kingdom he was announcing. But, his disciples still came to him. He had pointed out the One they should be following and still they followed him instead. Well and good, they were his disciples and as such they were in some degree his responsibility. Well, even from prison he could and would take care of his responsibility.

So, he sent them to meet with Jesus. He sent them bearing a question, “Are you the One?” There is a tendency to read doubt into that message being sent, but it is more in keeping with what we see of John to find in it a particular finesse. Those he sent felt a certain urgency in their going because they had this mission from their teacher. He had given them a task to do which he could not do for themselves, and they would be sure to seek this Jesus out and have an answer from Him. And so they did. They came to Jesus and were witness themselves to the wonders that were transpiring around Him. They saw for themselves, as the Pharisees did, that the blind were healed, the lame were walking, the poor were hearing of the kingdom’s gift of redemption. They saw for themselves the very signs performed by this Man which Isaiah had declared of Him. They had witnessed in deeds of flesh the pronouncement that this was indeed the acceptable Day of the Lord. To ensure they got the message, Jesus tells them outright, “Go and tell John what you have just witnessed.” This was the answer they would bear back to him there in prison. As they returned to him, they could ponder how Jesus’ message answered John’s question. John, though, already knew the answer. By the time they reached him, they would, too.

I have said that John did not minister in miracles and that is true. On the other hand, his very birth was a sign and a wonder of no small moment. Here was one announced by angels, although it was only his father who had witnessed that announcement. Oh, but God made certain that the event would be noticed on a grander scale. The announcement was made in the Holy Place, to the priest on duty at the time (he being John’s father to be). It was made as the faithful of Israel stood without awaiting the return of this man who had borne their prayers before the throne. And now, he was running a bit late and the people were getting concerned in proportion to the delay. When finally he comes out, behold! He cannot speak! They may not have understood what it meant, but they knew for certain that it meant something!

Months on end his silence endured, communicating only in writing. Then, finally, came the birth of his son. People marveled. After all, he and his wife were, like Abraham and Sarah, well beyond the time of child rearing. This was marvel enough, to behold a couple like Abraham and Sarah! But then at the birth, the father’s silence is broken and my, how it is broken! That birth is enveloped in prophecies. It has been long and long since Israel has heard God’s word spoken in that fashion. Their fathers, their fathers’ fathers, and generations beyond had not heard the prophetic word spoken in the land. God had been silent for so long and now, at this boy’s birth, suddenly He is speaking again! A sign and a wonder indeed, and the people who witnessed it all did wonder. What would this boy grow up to be?

But, it would be another thirty years or so before they found out. I wonder how many remembered that birth when John returned from his desert training grounds? I wonder how many connected the rumors coming from the regions around the Jordan with that birthing they had heard about in the hill country around Jerusalem. How long was their memory? How well did the significant sign persist in their thinking?

Well, events would certainly show them the meaning of that sign: the prophetic office was being revived. Many would have it that the prophetic office was being completed and closed out. That, however, would be overstating the case. John was the greatest amongst the prophets, even as Jesus said. Yet, in Jesus the prophetic office assuredly reaches a greater height and a greater glory. Further, we know from the records of the New Testament that the office of the prophet continued after Jesus ascended to heaven. Its texture may have changed somewhat, but it remained. It was interesting to hear R. C. Sproul’s message of the month regarding Elijah on this matter. One thing he pointed out was that the prophetic office continues every time a sermon is preached, for in that preaching, the preacher is proclaiming God’s Word to God’s people which was ever and always the fundamental purpose of the prophet.

So, John comes not to perform signs but to be a sign. He is a sign that the God of Israel is still present in His creation, still looking at the lives of His people, and still telling them the same message: “Turn from your wicked ways and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.” His message, as He delivers it through the prophets, is always a message of reformation to His people. We are forever getting so caught up in the externals of religion that we neglect the critical matters of character. God sees this, and it is certainly nothing new to Him. He has seen it before and, each time He sees it, His answer for His people remains the same. “I don’t care about your rituals, I care about you!”

That was the message to Israel when the prophets of old exposed the emptiness of the multiplied sacrifices and festivals that Israel had imposed on herself. That was the message to the Pharisees when they measured everything by outward act and left their inward condition to rot. That was the message to the Catholic Church when the reformers brought forth God’s Word against misguided traditions. That is the message in our day, in the age of denominationalism and so-called non-denominationalism. God is not nearly as concerned with the things that divide us as we are. I suspect He is more concerned with the things that don’t divide us but really should.

What do I mean by that? Well, let us consider. The Baptists began their life as a denomination because they were certain that baptism ought to be a matter of full immersion rather than a simple sprinkling. The Lutherans remained unique amongst the early denominations because of their particular views on the matter of communion. Then, there are the divisive debates as to whether infant baptism or christening or no, we must wait for the age of reason should guide the church. Now, while all of these have spiritual significance, the debate does not concern the significance so much as the forms. It’s about which rite is right. These are the sorts of things, along with even less spiritually significant matters such as church polity or organization, are the things that used to divide. Divisions within today’s church are often over even less meaningful matters. It may be as simple as preference in worship style, or the architectural style of the church facility.

And yet, when it comes to matters such as accepting homosexuals as proper representatives of a God who declares such practices the height of immorality, the church isn’t sure whether that should be an issue or not! And yet, when Jesus has been all but removed from the message, the church isn’t sure whether that should be an issue or not. No, we can work around these things. Sins in the membership? Sins in the leadership? Well, I admit that on one level we must acknowledge that of course there are. No man has ever walked the earth at liberty from sin excepting Jesus. Yet, God makes it pretty clear what levels of personal purity are demanded of those who would serve Him as priest or as Levite. He makes it pretty clear that His standards are high. But, we will lower His standards at our convenience and think nothing of it.

Into all this mess, God speaks once again and says, “It’s not your forms of worship that impress Me. It’s not your well-developed and well-reasoned organizing skills that I seek. Mine, after all, are far greater. Shall I really take counsel from you as to how I ought best to govern My own creation? No, these are not the things I measure. I measure you. I measure your heart. It is the reality of worship I seek, not the propriety. I don’t have any interest in hearing your well-chosen phrases in prayer. The finest gifts of oration will not improve My reception of your words. It’s not the finery, it’s the honesty! Don’t tell Me how much you love Me and believe in Me when your hearts make it blatantly obvious that you don’t! Either love Me in earnest, believe Me at My word, or leave Me. I have no place for those who would call Me, ‘Lord,’ but give Me no allegiance.”

We are due, I think, for another visit from one such as John, one who will brook no idolatry in us. We are due for one who will speak the Truth of God bluntly, without flourish. This is, it seems to me, what has always preceded the sort of revival of faith that we say we seek. It has not been something worked up, something where the faithful made everything attractive. It has been the impact of somebody smart enough and simple enough to take God at His word and speak that word with nothing added and nothing removed. The laborers who have truly brought harvest to God’s kingdom have not concerned themselves with how they are received. They have simply done their utmost to know the God they serve and to tell those they are given to encounter what it is they know. John was not some masterful orator trained in the fine arts of Greece. He spent all his formative years in the desert! Who would he practice on? The apostles were likewise men of plain speech, unaccustomed and we might say unfit for court fineries. Yet, the words these men spoke changed the world!

Move forward in time. Come to the Great Awakening that helped define the foundations upon which this American experiment would be built. Certainly, there were those that spoke with flourish and fine words. The same could be said of those who sought to keep this irrational faith from poisoning the minds of the people. But, the one who is remembered most powerfully, quite often spoken of as the greatest of American preachers, was a man who, though intelligent and well-written, was reputedly less than dynamic in his presentation. It is said that his delivery when he preached was made in monotones, without so much as the dynamics of volume. Yet the words God gave him to speak had no need for those dynamics. They were fit to penetrate the stoniest of hearts without any further assistance.

Why should we think today any different? Yes, we live in a culture that is entertainment driven and attention deprived. Does that really mean that we should try to shape God’s Word to their tastes? Shall we take Truth and paint it up in entertaining colors? Will it be a greater Truth then? Shall we beware of giving too much Truth for folks to think about? Come on! Go back and read something by Jonathon Edwards! Those were sermons to be reckoned with, and they were no short, we need to be out of here by lunchtime things either. No, and those listening couldn’t run out to the lobby afterwards and buy a tape or a CD to review what he had said. I would question, for that matter, how many were taking notes as they sat there. Yet, his words changed things. His words brought people weeping to repentance, people whose feet none could have expected to tread the chapel floors. They did so because they were not his words, they were the Word of God. He changed not the Truth to boost his numbers. He did not water it down to keep from offending the new folks. He did not keep to a quick three pointer lest he overwhelm the capacity of his listeners to understand. No, he spoke the whole, unadulterated Truth. And a town changed, a region changed. Indeed, it would not be overstating the case I think to say a nation was born, perhaps not by this one man, but by men of his ilk, performing the office of the prophet and bearing God’s word to God’s people free of artifice.

What do you think would happen if a John approached the Church today? The more staid denominations would likely reject him for being too much a radical. The more charismatic or Pentecostal sorts would be just as likely to reject him because he didn’t make great show of the gifts of the Spirit. Where’s the excitement? Where’s the healings that must follow? What sign do you do that we may know you are sent by God? Oy! Do you know what sign John performed? It’s very simple, and it wasn’t a performance. His sign was simply the truth of his message. Everything he said about Jesus was true. That was the only sign he needed to offer and it was a sign that was almost uniformly missed.

Truth, Truth with a capital T, is the sign of the Church and the sign of those who truly pursue the Almighty God. Every other aspect of religion is perfectly capable of being faked, and faked well enough that the best of Christians will not notice the difference. Read the Book! God already told you this was the case! Signs and wonders will follow them, but it’s by their fruits you know them, not by the wonders. The devil and his cohorts are just as adept at signs and wonders. They, too, can prompt healings or at least what appear to be healings. Does this make them devoted servants of the True God? No! They promote nothing but lies. They seek nothing but to distort the Truth, distract the faithful, and depose God Most High. Like the magicians of Pharaoh’s courts they will copy and mimic every move of God’s man so as to keep most of the people fooled most of the time. They will look good enough to convince many that the righteous man in their midst is the fake. Yet, that righteous man remains the righteous man and they the fakers. And God will see to it that His true children can see the difference.

Do you want to see what a real man of God looks like? Look at John in the circumstances that brought him to Herod’s prison. He was there because he would not bend the definition of righteousness for the powerful. He was there because he valued God more than life. And when we read of Herod’s reaction to John, well here is a wonder if not a sign! This John would stand up in Herod’s face, even though he was fully in Herod’s power to destroy as far as the flesh is measured, and tell Herod the truth about himself. Why, this most prideful and vain of men not only took those words without retaliating any further than he had already, he came back day after day to hear it again!

When Paul was imprisoned in later years, we know that the ruler of that time came looking for a bribe from Paul. He just wanted a bit of money to let that one go his way. That was all. Herod, though, looking upon John, and knowing his background well enough from the reports of him that came in, knew there was no hope of making financial gains of that man. He had not the means of bribing his way out and frankly, Herod had sufficient political cause, by his thinking anyway, not to allow that to happen anyway. Certainly, John was in prison for taking public notice of Herod’s sins, but he was also there because Herod viewed him as a threat, a danger to his rule. John, likewise, knew Herod well enough to know that he was not going to leave that prison except Herod pass from this life first. Even then, he knew the likelihood was small indeed that he would survive that cell. Yet, even this did not change his message.

This is where John and Elijah meet, in this absolute unwillingness to change the message of Truth. This is the thing that made all the difference in their ministries. But, what we find at the root of that stance is the thing that matters. Both men could uphold Truth because they knew Truth, and they knew it with a certainty that led to a defense of Truth that bespoke authority and power. They could proclaim Truth boldly because they were intimately acquainted with the Author and Definer of Truth. These men had taken time to meet with their God, to be alone with Him, to attune their ears and their thinking to His voice alone. They had made a concerted effort to establish an intimate communication between themselves and their Creator, even as Adam had known in the Garden.

Do you know, this is all God is ever looking for in His children? What does He require of you, oh man, except to walk humbly with Him (Mic 6:8)? Notice that the requirement is to walk with Him, not behind Him, not before Him, not cowered in fear at His feet, but walking with Him; learning from Him as He provides the example of what is good. That verse from Micah declares a couple of other requirement: Do justice and love kindness. How shall we come to the place of fulfilling these demands? Solely by heeding the last, walk with Him. Become intimate with His ways. Make Him your study, your mentor, your hero. Micah was but building on what Moses had written long before. “What does God require of you? Fear Him, walk in all His ways and love Him. Serve Him with all your heart and soul and keep His commandments” (Dt 10:12). Moses more or less laid out the what, but it was left to Micah to clarify the how. It was there in the original, but it was obscured by fear. Moses told us to walk in His ways. Micah explained that the only way we would ever succeed in doing that would be to walk with Him in His ways.

Elijah understood this, at least for the most part. There were times, certainly, when he lost sight of that key and in those times his own weakness was clearly on display. But, the habit had been formed, the connection made. When Elijah was weak, His dear and intimate friend God would come to him with comfort and a reminder of strength. John had established these same channels of intimate communication as he grew up out in the desert. He had walked with God. He had walked with none but God. So, as the potential distractions of ministry arose about him, they failed to distract him. He was walking with God. When people came insisting that he be something more than he was, or insisting that he be less, their demands fell flat. He was walking with God.

With both these men, their habitual walking with God gave them a keener perception of the unrighteousness around them, and left them incapable of leaving that unrighteousness unopposed. No, the Truth of God must out! To His own disciples, Jesus would issue the warning to count the cost before they signed on with Him. These two had already counted. They intimate relationship they had with their Maker far outweighed any petty annoyance this life might throw up before them. So, when John was made aware of Herod’s immoralities, there really wasn’t any decision John needed to make. He had made the decision many years before. There was only one response to such immorality, particularly at the head of God’s people, and if that response meant his own death, so be it. This was the way God was walking, and he would walk no other way.

Understand that there will assuredly be a price that must be paid by those who would stand up for righteousness in this world. An unrighteous people really doesn’t want to hear about their sins. They want to hear the “I’m OK, you’re OK” message of the sixties. They want to hear that they are legally free to pursue a course of ‘anything goes’. They don’t want liberty and they don’t even particularly want freedom. They want anarchy, but an anarchy with no threat to their person. They want to have their idols, pursue their pleasures and suffer no consequences. Of course, the real world just isn’t that way, but that doesn’t matter. They will do all that is in their power to convince themselves it is. Let a man of righteousness stand up before them and force their eyes to perceive reality for but a moment and they will, as I said, do all that is in their power to silence that man. If it take violence, so be it. If it takes denying him the very same things they insist on for themselves, so be it. Whatever must be done to keep the blinders in place, they’re willing. And, as they are in the majority, they are able.

The one who disturbs their blinders disturbs the peace and there are laws about disturbing the peace. This must not be tolerated and they will surely raise such a disturbance as must bring the law out to see to this one who has caused all the trouble! He will pay for his insolence! But, look! Look what happens when Herod imprisons John. The blinders won’t settle back in place. Herod has already seen too much of the Truth to simply walk back into the lie. No, he comes and listens again and again as John peels away all his built up defenses against the standard of righteousness.

Oh certainly, evil has its moment as Herodias outmaneuvers her husband and brings about John’s death, but even that is an empty moment. Her victory is brief and though her machinations for power continue, yet when they finally fail so utterly we find her a somewhat different woman that the one who sent her daughter for John’s head. Something has happened. Can it be that the power of righteousness has managed to bring a sliver of sunrise even to her eyes? Neither was his impact constrained to the palace. No, the people recognized what he stood for and why he had been imprisoned. Though his death was accomplished at the very boundaries of Herod’s territory, yet the people learned of it and they understood. They understood that here in their midst had been one who would remain committed to God’s Truth come what may. And, because they recognized it in him, they felt a pull toward that same commitment in themselves. They may not have stood up in the same stony strength that John manifested but they stood up. They began to open their eyes to their own condition, to comprehend the need for repentance that he had been telling them about and to do something about it.

There is power when the righteous man stands up! It may not be the sort of power that heads of state think important, but it is powerful to the tearing down of kingdoms. It is powerful to the tearing down of kingdoms for the very reason that it has no place or concern for kingdoms. It is powerful because it feels no lust for power. It is not seeking itself, but seeking God. It is not looking at the petty kingdoms of man but pursuing the purposes of the kingdom of heaven. It is not ignorant of the darkness that surrounds. It knows its own power is more than able to force the light of Truth into the thickest darkness. It knows that death cannot stop it. It knows that there is nothing in this life or beyond that can separate those who have found true intimacy with God. It has measured every possible reward this world has to offer, stacked it all up against the immeasurable benefit of being God’s child, and found its answer. Nothing shall turn it aside.

The power of righteousness abides in obedience. What God commands, that shall I do. I shall not measure His command against my benefit or my loss. I shall simply do. It was this sort of obedience that made armies such as Rome’s so fearsome. It was obedience such as this that made the prophets so feared. It was obedience such as this that led to twelve poorly educated men and one who had devoted himself to their destruction to become a force that has forever altered the course of human history. The obedience that comes to those established in righteous pursuit by intimate association with the Author of all righteousness astonishes. When once we stop worrying about our pride and our opinions, when once we let go of our reputation and start demanding that God’s will be done, astonishing things are going to happen.

As I was digging into earlier parts of this whole Gospel study looking for what ought to be said of John here, I came across something I had written that I think might just as well be quoted in full at this point. I incorporate it not, I hope, out of any pride, not out of some sense of ‘boy am I good or what?’ I incorporate it because I could stand the reminder myself, the reminder of insight I have been granted in the past that I need to have again today.

“Obedience is going to lead us to do things that will not make a bit of sense in the eyes of the watching world. They won't get it. We probably won't even get it. Eventually, though, the result God has been purposing will come to pass, and we will not be the only ones to stand in awe of what He has done in that moment. No, there is incredible power in obedience, because in obedience we are operating not in our own strength but in the strength of our Lord. In obedience, we admit our utter weakness, and depend wholly upon Him. We set aside all possibility of leaning on our own understanding, because we don't understand! We are forced to walk by faith alone, and when faith is active, the Spirit is moving, and when the Spirit is moving, there is power - dunamis - power to overcome obstacles, power to rise above, power to accept the word of the Lord and power to act upon that word. Obedience to the Lord is the very thing that turned the world upside down in the days of the apostles.”

Now, some look to the assessment Jesus makes in regard to John and declare it proof that the office of the prophet is at an end. But, what does the passage in question actually say? “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached” (Lk 16:16). Does this declare prophecy at an end? No. Does it even imply a shift of office? No. There is a shift of message, to be sure. No, even that is inaccurate. Even the message has not really changed, for the Law and the Prophets both spoke of and prepared for Messiah. But, the Law left preparation in our own imperfect hands, dependent upon our own weak efforts. By and large, it leaned on the negative reinforcement of punishment to urge us on to greater effort. Much of the Prophetic writings of the Old Testament continued with that negative reinforcement, although they always pointed forward to a reward.

It was as though the reward were not enough to entice us, and so, the dire consequence of a very present punishment must be made clear to us to goad us toward seeking that deferred blessedness. With the coming of the Gospel, though, the focus is more on the accomplished fact of our failure and on the present availability of remedy. It is about removing dread from our properly expected future and replacing it with a certainty of hope. Jesus makes it abundantly clear, even in the next verse of Luke’s account, that the Law has not been changed in any way (Lk 16:17 – more likely that heaven and earth should end than the Law). One may well presume that when the Law is mentioned in this context, the Prophets are understood to be included.

More to the point, though, it is the text of Scripture that is in view in this – well the text and the meaning. Perhaps, then, this idea that the prophetic office ends with John is based on this word, “Among those born of women there has not arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Mt 11:11). Well and good. There has not – at that time in which Jesus is speaking – arisen one greater than John. The verb is in the perfect indicative. None has been certainly realized as having arisen up to that time of John’s arising. Hmm. Clearly, Jesus Himself stands as one greater than John, by John’s own acknowledgement, and though He was not begotten of man yet He was born of a woman, so He is in that number. Further, what is said of those going forward except that the least member of God’s kingdom is greater still!

This passage, like that in Hebrews which tends to be quoted as closing out the prophetic office or the prophetic gift, must be heard with that conclusion already firmly in mind if that is to be the understanding. Consider, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophet in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb 1:1-2). Does this, then, indicate in any way shape or form that God no longer speaks at all? Has His mouth been shut up because He had His Son speak? There is nothing in this passage that can require such an understanding. Indeed, the very record of the Apostolic foundation of His Church demands a rejection of such an understanding! After all, it is very clear that there were prophets active in the early church, and that such were accepted as legitimate spokesmen for heaven’s God by those very apostles whom Jesus appointed to establish the work. These necessarily came after Jesus, and spoke after Jesus. Just as assuredly, they arise after John. Even some thirty or more years hence, when Paul writes to the church he has established at Corinth, he is talking about prophecy as a standard fixture in the church. Indeed, he is calling for its increase! Why? Perhaps he recognized – as Augustine recognized – that so long as we continue to live by our limited lights upon this earth we will continue to have need for a greater light from heaven to penetrate the darkness.

Now, much is made of that statement that the least of God’s children is greater still than John (Lk 7:28). What should we understand from this, though? Are we talking about powers of miracle? John did none, so there is no cause to take that as the meaning. Are we talking about the prophetic office? Not directly. John’s primary office, although he stands as the greatest of the prophets, is as Forerunner. In him, the focus of the message has shifted from something far off in the future to something right here, right now. This, I think, is the key to understanding Jesus’ point. From that point forward, we are given to hang our hope not on something far off and awaited, nor even on something near and present day. Our righteousness does not hinge on such weak supports! No, it is laid upon a foundation that has been laid on solid grounds. The righteousness by which we can have hope to stand before God is a righteousness of which it can be said, “It is finished!”

How I love that simple message from my Lord! “It is finished!” Nothing can block that work, for the work has already been completed. Nothing can destroy that work, for it is perfected. I am no longer dependent upon my own weak will to reach that place of God’s pleasure. I am no longer looking forward to the day of Messiah’s rescue. I am dwelling in the security of having already been rescued by Messiah, and knowing that He never has and never will fail to hold onto those whom God has entrusted to His rescue.

Alone among men, John had the privilege of declaring the present fulfillment of the prophetic message. Here is Messiah. Here is the One they have all written about. This is the day. This is the King. The day may not be as you expected. The King may seem unimpressive to your eyes in this present guise, but this is it! From that point forward, we have been blessed to stand on the Truth that He Is Risen. It is finished!

Finally, there is that in Jesus’ assessment of John that gives pause. Here is the greatest of the prophets up to his day, the forerunner who announced Messiah’s arrival, and yet it seems he did not reach the kingdom. Can it be? Logic would insist that if the least in the kingdom are greater than he, then he is not in the kingdom. That, however, seems to fly in the face of our understanding. If even Abraham looked forward to the day of Jesus’ coming, did he then fail to enter into faith’s promise? How can it be? We are told that these men of faith were able to do as they did because of a certain hope in that promise which an unchanging God had made. How, then, can we think that the sleep of death could prevent them from gaining what was theirs on God’s word?

Yet, the pages of Scripture are filled with those who stood on the verge of the promise and failed of it. Caleb, of course, stands temporarily in that position; having seen the goodness of what God was offering His people, but forced to walk away from it for the greater part of his life. I would note, though, that in his case the fault did not lie with him. Moses, stands as a greater example. He, too, spent those long desert years in faith, knowing the truth of Caleb’s report yet required to lead a rebellious people through the long years of their punishment. In the end, it seems the challenge was too much for him and he became presumptuous. He presumed to take God’s command and subjugate it to his own frustration. He presumed to require that God perform His miracle even though Moses His servant performed other than as commanded. For that presumption Moses found himself barred from entering into the Promise. He would indeed stand on the verge, overlooking that good land once more before his passing, but that would end it.

It must be recognized, however, that Moses was not barred utterly from the greater promise, only from the physical manifestation. He would not be allowed to dwell on earth in the land of God’s choosing, but he was clearly present and accounted for in the courts of the King. This, I think, must give us some insight into the meaning and the bounds of what Jesus spoke regarding John. Moses, although barred from the land of Promise, was yet sent as emissary of heaven’s court. He, along with Elijah, who had not tasted death, were sent to hold counsel with Jesus there on the mountaintop. Now, we could get all mystical about this and suggest that as nobody knows the whereabouts of Moses’ grave perhaps he, too, was brought up to heaven alive and well. But, there is no mention of that in Scripture, and surely such a thing would have been noted in some more obvious fashion.

I think that we must understand instead that there is this distinction which Jesus is making. The boundary which is marked out by John’s ministry is the boundary between kingdom-future and kingdom-present. The greatness of which He is speaking must, I believe, be restricted to the acts of ministry which shall transpire upon this earthly plane. Only in that wise can I consider that John is other than a child of God’s kingdom. In his life on this earth, he was restrained from obtaining full citizenship in the fashion that we now know it. He was thus restrained not because he was somehow less deserving than we, but because his office required it.

Think about that for a moment. The office which belonged uniquely to John makes it manifestly obvious that he was an official of the heavenly court by appointment. He was appointed even prior to his conception to fulfill the office of Forerunner for heaven’s King. As a representative of the government of heaven, surely he is a citizen thereof! Yet, in this life he was restricted from enjoying the full benefits of that citizenship. The King he served had opted to set aside the perks of His position in coming to visit His sojourning nationals. It were only fitting that the Forerunner should do likewise. Yet, he was no less certain of attaining the prize for all that. He was but obedient to his orders. He had been sent to complete the old covenant even as Jesus had come to fulfill the old covenant.

It is not that John was somehow less deserving of redemption at the hand of his Master. Redemption has never been about deserving anyway. No, it was but the demand of fulfilling all that was written that kept him from enlisting as a disciple of the Christ. He knew, after all, that this was assuredly Messiah standing in the water with him. He sent his own disciples to join Messiah’s ranks! Yet, the demands of his office prevented him from doing likewise. There can be no other reason for his exclusion.

It is in this light that we must view him standing on the verge. He stands in obedience, knowing full well that the promise is his nonetheless. I think Moses must have understood this, too, as did all those who had gone from this life without seeing the Promise fulfilled. They knew. Their faith was not hung upon worldly blessings. They sought, as the writer of Hebrews says, a city whose builder is our God.

So now consider once again what Jesus means in saying that the least in the kingdom is greater. To be certain, let me say it again: John is assuredly of and in the kingdom. His citizenship is as certain as Abraham’s. I have to suppose, therefore, that what Jesus is getting at is the matter of the kingdom citizen during this earthly sojourn. In this life, we are given to excel even the greatness of those who preceded us because we no longer look forward in hope, but look backward in certainty. We no longer await the completion, we remember it and are thereby made strong.

Too often we take that declaration as promising that we shall prophecy even greater things, or that we shall do all manner of miraculous things, yet it is not these acts that define the greatness of God’s people. John worked no miracles. Abraham worked no miracles. The greatness that follows God’s representatives is not that they wield these otherworldly powers. It is that they stand in righteousness. It is that they will stand up in the midst of the greatest flow of evil and proclaim God’s standards. The greatness of God’s representatives lies in that fact that even though all the world around them pursues a course of unmitigated immorality, still the citizen of heaven will walk according to what is right. Still, he will hold himself to the standards of his homeland in heaven. Even though he will undoubtedly stumble in his pursuit of that righteous course and even though he knows it in himself, yet he will do his utmost to walk on. Even though he knows himself forgiven and redeemed by the very King of heaven, his sins both past and future forgiven and wiped from the records, yet he will not take this as leave to do as he pleases. No! He will take it as even greater cause to walk in a fashion that manifests a worthy gratitude for what his King has done for him.

Greater things! Not the trinkets and baubles of charismatic excess, but the real inward power of God’s Spirit, imbuing us with a capacity for righteousness well beyond our own power. This is the possession of the least child of God’s kingdom in our day. How terrible shall it be for us if we neglect that possession? How shameful of us if we pursue instead the things that amuse our senses!

Oh God, let us heed the message that John brought. Let us be a people in repentance before You daily, for our sins mount up against You daily. Let us not be unduly attracted by the gimmicks and the glamour of spiritualist fireworks, but rather drawn to the pure light of righteousness. Let us once for all set aside our lust for the pleasures of this life. Let us once for all truly turn our eyes on You and Your kingdom and Your desire and let the best of this world’s offerings be seen for what it is – base and worthless fool’s gold.

Guide us today, Holy Spirit, in the path of obedience. Cause us to stand as we ought, and let us not take it upon ourselves to decide what will please our Lord and Savior. Let us instead here what He would have and then set ourselves resolutely to do it.